visits and stuff

Golden Week so far has been tons of fun. For those of you who don't know, Golden Week is the end of April/beginning of May, when a bunch of national holidays happen to fall right in a row. It's not exactly a week's worth, but close enough that the government just decided to give everybody the whole week off. (I love Japan!!)
Even though the holidays didn't officially start until Tuesday, IUC was nice enough to give us the whole week off--yaaayy!! So, I've been taking full advantage of the break--not really doing anything special, just lots of hanging out and stuff--going out for yakiniku, watching movies, that sort of thing.
Sunday afternoon I spent with Molly and Misa. We went over to Dakanyama, which is an area just outside Shibuya, with lots of shops and boutiques and stuff. FUN! XD And after, we stopped in Yokohama eki for dinner at the soup curry place.

Tuesday, Jonah (Yalie/with me at HIF) came to visit. He'd just finished up a semester at KCJS and is in Tokyo for a few days before going back to the States, so we met up in Yokohama for a nice lunch in Chinatown, and then walked around for a while. It was lots of fun, we went over to Motomachi, and then through lots of areas of Yamate that I hadn't been in yet. Yamate is the old mansion district above Motomachi, where the rich foreigners lived--and where rich people still live--so the houses were amazing. It feels very not like Japan. There's also an "Italianate Garden" that we walked through, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was really odd to be standing in the middle of all of this Western-feeling architecture, and greenery, and look out over the rest of Yokohama. Not that I don't love Yokohama, but...it just looks different from up there.
Then we went over to the Minato Mirai area, and walked over to Aka Renga just around sunset. The flowers from last time were all gone, but the view was just fantastic. Yappari, Yokohama = <3

***
Also, this week's PV! Sorry, but I just couldn't resist--it's the new News song, "Summer Time."
Seasonally appropriate, and lots of fun to watch.
These boys just thrill my fangirl heart... ^_^

Lovely + Odd

It's been raining miserably for the past several days--that chilly, icky kind of rain where the wind is blowing it all over you and your umbrella is completely useless, even when it's not turned inside-out.
But on Friday, it finally decided to be sunny and warm, and I was in heaven! ^_^ Cause it was so nice, Jason and I went to the combini after class and took lunch outside, to sit along the water behind IUC. It was sooooooo nice! XD
View to the right.... View to the left.... Walking home, we went via Aka Renga for a change of pace. We browsed a little bit around the shops inside--browsing only, since (fortunately?) I had forgotten my wallet at home that day. Outside Aka Renga, they were planting a big display of flowers. It smelled fantastic!
Then, we happened upon some sort of pottery fair thing that was starting up in Odori Koen (where I live). This photo only shows a part of it, but there were lots of stalls on both sides of the park, taking up a whole block. Bowls, cups, teapots, chopsticks, wooden dishes...lots of different things. And some of them were just gorgeous.
And, last but oh-most-definitely not least, another stellar example of Odori Koen scenery.
This is just...

...

Priceless.